EMC’s Chuck Hollis on VDI. Link: Chuck’s Blog: VDI — The Red Hot Discussion.
I’ve never seen anything like this in the industry. … Just when you thought the server-oriented ESX party was raging, over
the last 6-12 months the VDI discussion has become extremely
interesting, especially to larger organizations who are seeing the
potential to save money, deliver better user experiences, improve
security and so on.If you’ve been around the industry for any length of time,
periodically the thin client discussion comes around. Please, set
aside your cynicism for just a moment — this time it’s different.Previously, it’s been an IT-driven thing. All the benefits accrued
to IT, and few (if any) to the knowledge workers who had to use the
stuff. There were some nasty compromises that limited thin-client
effectiveness.With VDI, users get clear benefits.
It’s a full experience with no compromises – an XP Pro desktop is an
XP Pro desktop — it’s very hard to detect any meaningul differences.
They get the ability to potentially work on any device (home, office,
etc.) and get a full and consistent desktop experience — no schlepping
files around, etc. …Don’t over-optimize the environment for cost savings. I’ve talked
to more than a few IT organizations that were trying to get the very
last pennies out of cost savings, at the expense of an improved user
experience. …
And, surprisingly, many of the policies around desktop usage might
be re-thought at the same time. Like access from outside the firewall,
for example. Or supporting consultants and other business partners
using internal applications. A lot can potentially change here — and
for the good.Quite humbly, I’ve never seen anything like this before …
He also talks about some of the case studies on our site from a storage guy’s perspective. A good read, as is his whole blog. Also check out the VMware Communities VDI Community for more discussion.
